TUC: Women are “bearing the brunt” of exploitative zero-hours contracts

10 Mar 2025 11:11 AM

 The TUC recently (Thursday) warned that women are bearing the brunt of exploitative zero-hours contracts which are “hindering progress towards gender equality”.

• New TUC research reveals women are 34% more likely than men to be on exploitative zero-hours contracts. 
• As the hugely popular Employment Rights Bill is set to return to Parliament, the TUC hits back at those defending a broken status quo that holds women back.   
• Women trade union activists from across the UK are meeting in London (5-7 March)  to advance the agenda for working women in the UK.  

New analysis by the union body reveals that women are nearly a third more likely to be on zero-hours contracts than men. 

The analysis also shows that: 

• Women are overrepresented in eight of the ten occupations with the highest number of workers on zero-hours contracts  
• Women are also more likely than men to be stuck on exploitative zero-hours contracts for longer than one year (69% compared to 64%).    
• On average, women on zero-hours contracts earn nearly £10 less an hour compared to men not employed on zero-hours contracts. 

The union body says this stark gender divide is partly the result of women tending to be employed in sectors characterised by high levels of insecurity and high prevalence of zero-hours contracts, such as social care and hospitality.  

For example, there are nearly twice as many women working as waiters compared to men – a profession where 33% of the workforce is on zero-hours contracts.  

And three-quarters of care workers, the occupation with the second highest number of zero-hours contracts, are female. 

Click here for the full press release